Volleyball Preview: Topsail Pirates vs. Ashley Screaming Eagle
Topsail hasn't had much luck against Ashley recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. The Topsail Pirates will be playing in front of their home fans against the Ashley Screaming Eagle at 6:00 p.m. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Topsail will bounce into Tuesday's game after beating Laney, who they hadn't topped in nine consecutive meetings. Topsail blew past Laney 3-0 on Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Pirates.
After all that action, the final score was 25-16, 25-15, 25-18.
Topsail was lethal from the service line and finished the game with ten aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least nine aces in 11 consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, there's no place like home for Ashley, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by a 3-0 margin over North Brunswick on Thursday.
The 3-0 doesn't show just how dominant Ashley was: they took every set by at least 12 points. Once all was said and done, the final score wound up at 25-8, 25-13, 25-6.
Ashley got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Claire Johnson out in front who had ten digs. The team also got some help courtesy of Kate Johnson, who had three aces and 11 assists.
Topsail pushed their record up to 10-1 with that victory, which was their seventh straight on the road. As for Ashley, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five contests, which provided a nice bump to their 6-10 record this season.
Here's a few offensive stats to keep an eye on ahead of Tuesday's matchup: Topsail has serving mastered this season, having averaged 13 aces per game. However, it's not like Ashley struggles in that department as they've been averaging 8.7. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Topsail came up short against Ashley when the teams last played back in October of 2023, falling 3-1. Can Topsail avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
